Cheap Labor and Cheapened Men

Comprehensive Immigration Reform™ is the infinitely looped, 3am infomercial of the political world. It will shore up our bankrupt entitlement programs! It will improve American competitiveness in the global labor market! It will enrich American culture! It will, according to various Republicans led by Senator Rubio, heal and modernize the image of the Republican Party!

The Congressional Black Caucus, a fringe organization any rational person should hesitate to be in agreement with, is selling Comprehensive Immigration Reform™ to black voters as a continuation of the fight against slavery and second class citizenship. Yes, they are. Call Representative Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08) and ask him to explain the link to you. Having a few drinks before you make the call is recommended. And a few after the call will be required.Of course, Comprehensive Immigration Reform™ neither solves nor address any of the above.

In reality, away from the political carny barking, the main feature of Comprehensive Immigration Reform™, beside guaranteeing a permanent Democratic majority, is crushing the ability of unskilled, high school educated Americans to earn a living. Particularly black Americans.

If Congressman Jeffries can pause his struggle against slave holding plantation owners for just a moment he might benefit from learning what amnesty, excuse me, Comprehensive Immigration Reform™ does to his constituents.

The United States Commission on Civil Rights released a report in February about illegal immigration and black citizens. It found:

Illegal immigration to the United States in recent decades has tended to increase the supply of low-skilled, low-wage labor available in the U.S. labor market

About 60% of adult black males have a high school diploma or less and black men are disproportionately employed in the low-skilled labor market where they are more likely to be in competition with immigrants

The average worker with a high school degree or less earns less today, adjusted for inflation, than someone with a similar education earned thirty-five years ago.

Illegal immigration to the United States has tended to depress both the wages and employment rates for low-skilled American citizens, a disproportionate number of whom are black men

Immigration policy is about citizenship. Not fairness. Not pathways. It is about real persons who are American citizens and what the government can do to protect them and promote their well being. Flooding the low-skilled labor market will only serve to further disenfranchise one of the most vulnerable citizen groups in the country. Championing the cause of people whose first act in America was to break the law only serves to weaken respect for the government and its laws.

For black citizens amnesty would be another rock on the back of an already debilitated community. Who speaks for them? Not the anachronistic kooks at the CBC or their open border counterparts in the GOP.

Conservatives can make progress toward gaining the black vote if they begin their pitch where Frederick Douglass, not the time traveling Hakeem Jeffries, left off in the 1850s. When speaking of the effect of mass immigrations on black employment Douglass thundered, “Every hour sees the black man elbowed out of employment by some newly arrived immigrant whose hunger and whose color are thought to give him a better title to the place.”

That place Douglas spoke of is America. Politically and socially blacks need to be drawn closer to the United States — not pushed further away into dependency and economic ruin as the two dominant parties vie for the affections of newcomers with sweet promises of cash and clout in return for electoral favors.